PC gamers hoping to snag a free OnLive copy of Deus Ex: Human Revolution with their boxed copy should steer clear of GameStop. The retailing giant recently instructed its employees to remove coupons for a free OnLive version of Deus Ex from all of their stock, according to a leaked internal memo (seen above via OnLive Spot).

In an effort to explain, GameStop issued a statement on its Facebook page: “GameStop’s policy is that we do not promote competitive services without a formal partnership. Square Enix packed a competitor’s coupon within the PC version of Deus Ex: Human Revolution without our prior knowledge and we did pull these coupons.” Sometime after issuing this statement, Gamestop decided to sidestep the issue entirely and stop selling Deus Ex.

“Formal partnership” or no, GameStop simply may not be comfortable promoting an online competitor, especially after GameStop’s move into digital distribution with its purchase of Impulse and Spawn Labs this past March.

We'll have to see whether the Deus Ex incident is repeated in the future - Gamestop had no problem selling the PS3 version of Portal 2, even though that game also included a code to download the PC version at no cost from Steam.OnLive told Joystiq that this pack-in offer won’t be the last of its kind. “You can think of this as cloud game meets physical media 1.0," said CEO Steve Perlman.

Unfortunately for OnLive, there may not be another version if they can’t convince large chains like GameStop to climb aboard their cloud gaming bandwagon.